On 29/01/08 Rob Lefebvre of The Anchor wrote:The Stanley Hotel, located in Estes Park, Colo., has nearly a century of history. The hotel was also the inspiration for the Overlook Hotel, the setting for Stephen King's masterpiece The Shining. It has also hosted some famous names such as Stephen King, Theodore Roosevelt, and even the Emperor and Empress of Japan. But the Stanley may be hosting more than just guests. It has been the site of numerous reports of supposed hauntings.

The Stanley was built in 1909 by Freelan O. Stanley, inventor of theStanley Steamer automobile, after coming to Estes Park when he camedown with tuberculosis. When he found that the town was economicallypoor, and with the amazing view of the Rockies, he decided to have thehotel built using his connections he had made from the success of theSteamer. He also had a new road built into the town. To help christenit, he had the first visitors come in on steamers. In 1940, the year hedied, he finished having a sewer, water, and power company developedfor the town. Since then, the hotel had become a major success.

The hotel still stands and is still in operation today.

Many reports have come from the guests of the hotel that they had seenstrange images and had unexplainable things happen to them. Somebelieve that F. O. Stanley haunts the hotel himself. He has been seenmost often in the lobby and the Billiards room, which was his favoriteroom when he was alive. He has also been seen in the bar but quicklydisappears before anyone can get a better look.

It is also believed that F.O.'s wife Flora haunts the hotel as well. When she wasin the hotel, she used to entertain the guests by playing piano in the music room. Though there have been no actual sightings of her, the keys of the piano have been seen by several guests to be moving by themselves.

Guests have also reported hearing children playing in the hallway when no children were present, one couple even checking out because of the noise. Various employees have reported hearing voices when no one was around and seeing impressions in beds in rooms where no guests have stayed in for awhile. One guest claimed to have recorded a faded image of a man in a cowboy hat in his room, standing in front of the window. It lasted for a few minutes and then faded away. Another incident occurred where a guest attending her sister'swedding wrote "REDRUM" on a mirror with lipstick in her sister and hergroom-to-be's room a joke. Later, as she was walking down the grandstaircase to the lobby, she felt someone shove her and she fell downthe stairs. After being helped up, she looked to see who shoved her,but no one was around to have done so.

Many strange events seem to take place in the Stanley Hotel for sure.Some are certainly less explainable than others. Why people believethey see the Stanleys has no reasonable explanation. Noises that guestsand employees hear could be the creaking of heaters that they thinkmight be ghosts, or the shifting of the pine wood that some of thehotel is made from. Voices that they hear could be echoing through thefloors and walls from other rooms. That could account for the childrenthat are heard as well. Or they could actually be children that hidewhen someone tells them to stop or keep it down. The guest who recordedthe ghost wearing the cowboy hat would be more reliable if he showedthis recording rather than say he did. And the girl who claimed to beshoved could very well have lied. After all, she was in the process ofpulling a prank when it happened.

The Stanley Hotel has managed to stand as the very essence of the hauntedhotel story, even before Stephen King used it for inspiration. It hasalso been visited by the T.A.P.S team, aka the Ghost Hunters on theSciFi channel. But does the Stanley still have guests that have notchecked out?